C2 TV

 Tuesday 7th January 2025

Tv Drama

LO: To explore the content and format of the unit.

Do Now: 2/5

1) There are 2 media exams.

2) Each exam is 1 hour 30 minutes.

3) Genre means a type, a type of a media form, that involves a particular set of characteristics.

4) The target audience for The Archers is older, middle-class, white British women.

5) The BBC's remit is inform, educate and entertain.

Component 2:

'Understanding Media Forms and Products'

- Written examination: 1 hour 30 minutes.

- 60 marks.

Section A: Tv Crime Drama - 'Luther' and 'The Sweeney'.

Section B: Music Videos

Section A:

- Question 1: Media Language OR Representations.

- Question 2: Media Industries OR Audiences OR Media Contexts.

Crime Drama:

Genre - A type of a media form that involves a particular set of characteristics.

Sub-genre - When a large genre is sub-divided into smaller genres. Hospital drama, costume drama, etc.

Hybrid Genre - Media texts that incorporate more than one element of genre. Dr Who is fantasy, sci-fi.

Crime Drama 1: The Responder

Narrative:

- Man is a police officer.

Setting:

- Office, city

Characters:

- Man & woman

Mise-en-scene:

- Police car, uniform

Crime Drama 2: Happy Valley

Narrative:

- Police woman doing her job (clearly the protagonist)

Setting:

- Park, office

Characters:

- 2 police women

Mise-en-scene:

- Police car

Crime Drama 3: Line Of Duty

Narrative:

- Terrorist attack? Bomb threat, swat involved.

Setting:

- Tunnel, apartment complex 

Characters:

- Police man, whole team of officers

Mise-en-scene:

- Car chase scene?

Similarities:

- All have police officers present.

- Dim lighting.

- Set in cities - Urban locations.

- All start with trying to stop a crime from happening.

- Arial views - especially following police cars.

- Positioned on the good teams side - The police's perspective.

Typical Codes And Conventions:

- Urban area locations.

- Media language - Gritty lighting, dim & realistic settings like real life, diegetic sounds.

- Uniforms and equipment suitable to officers - Gun, handcuffs.

- Story begins with a sort of crime - Usually a victim.

- Police officer is flawed in some way, but also intelligent and determined.

- Protagonist and antagonist.

- A handful of suspects throughout.

- Clues - There are often lots of these but also red-herrings.

- Narrative Arc - The story has a continuing narrative.

- Character Types - The hero, the villain, the helper, the sidekick, and a dispatcher. (PROPS)

- Representations - They are mostly challenging, otherwise too predictable.

The impact of these conventions can make people feel engaged and hooked because they feel a need to find out what really happens as they can make their own guesses as to what they predict which allows them to feel like they need to know the answer as a way of knowing if they were correct. It causes enigmas, and as people we have a need to know the answer to these enigmas that interest us which allows audiences to stay tuned and hooked because they need their questions answered and solved. Finally, the use of tension and suspense causes people to want to keep watching as many tv dramas tend to include a cliffhanger where something happens but people want to know what happens next.